Chapter 838 Changle
Looking at these respectful Liangzhou generals around him, Dong Huang deeply understood why his uncle was so ill and reluctant to delegate power.
It turns out that being surrounded by people like gods is so satisfying.
The same is true, and he is even more eager to sit in that position in the palace.
After all, I am so happy now. If I become the emperor, I don’t know how happy it will be?
Just now, a large number of Liangzhou military generals finally arrived in Chang'an after receiving the invitation from the Prime Minister's Mansion.
But now it is only the vanguard, and more are still in the rear.
These Liangzhou generals were all Dong Zhuo's confidants. Now that they learned that the prime minister had passed away, the adult of the Dong family who was still alive was Dong Huang.
Dong Huang once again emphasized the political threat to these people, that is, the emperor wanted to kill all the people in Liangzhou, and they could only rise up to resist the emperor.
Maybe it was because he had said it so many times that he believed everything Dong Huang said.
Seeing that Dong Huang was so confident in his words, everyone also believed him.
So, after these people prepared the army and renegotiated the distribution of the spoils, they followed Dong Huang to attack the palace.
Dong Huang now had enough troops, so naturally he was not willing to wait and see, and launched an attack on the east gate without hesitation.
The palaces in the Han Dynasty were almost used as military fortresses, so even if Dong Huang had enough troops, he could not make much progress for a while.
But Dong Huang was not in a hurry. Now he had surrounded the palace on all sides. Although many members of the Gongqing family broke into the palace before, it did not affect the overall situation.
Now, time is on his side.
There are still a steady stream of Liangzhou soldiers rushing here outside.
……
When Dong Huang led his troops to attack the palace, the rebels in the city were also attacking places like Changle Palace.
When the chaos began, the children of the aristocratic family who were the first to get the news quickly took the news home. The female relatives who stayed at home knew that their own mansions could not withstand the attack, so they rushed to the safer Changle Palace. Go.
Changle Palace has always been the place where the Empress Dowager of the Han family spent her old age. Now it is the palace of Empress Dowager Dong.
The female relatives of these ministers often came to Changle Palace to accompany Empress Dowager Dong, so during the crisis, they first thought of going to Changle Palace to escape the chaos.
Because they had severed contact with Weiyang Palace, these women knew that they could not wait for their husbands to come back, so they hurriedly decided to take their core family members to Changle Palace first.
Because of the rush of time and the fact that some rebels had obviously rushed into the residence area where the minister lived, thousands of his family members and clansmen living in this area fell into a huge panic.
Everyone was devastated and went crazy.
And since we are going to evacuate to Changle Palace, it doesn't mean that we only need legs. A large number of female relatives have long lost the ability to walk vigorously, so every family is looking for a car for a while.
Originally, every family had a car, and even some respectable ministers' families might have more than a dozen, but now everyone needs to use a car, so this number is not enough.
Therefore, it was finally decided to let the men guard the chariot with swords in hand, while the female relatives all rode away in the chariot.
Soon it was dark, and half of the city was in chaos.
Especially when they heard that the West Market and East Market in the west of the city had been robbed by rebels, and they were the only valuable targets in the city.
So there is no other way. These people can only escape southward and enter Changle Palace as much as they can.
At this time, not only were the rebels raging, but some heroes in the city also jumped out to take advantage of the situation.
When encountering these fleeing convoys, they simply stopped them without grabbing them themselves. Those people offered gold and silver to them themselves, and some even had to kowtow to the rangers before letting them go.
In this way, these rangers who were originally shouted out by the prince's children gained great spiritual satisfaction.
This was to evacuate to Changle Palace, but there were also some officials from the family who claimed to have good relations with Dong Zhuo, but they did not evacuate to Changle Palace with the team.
Among them, Meng Tuo, the former governor of Liangzhou and now idle at home, is one of those who stayed at home.
As a veteran minister left over from the period of Emperor Ling, Meng Tuo had a good prestige, and because he had a good relationship with Dong Zhuo when he was in Liangzhou, he had always been Dong Zhuo's trusted minister.
So naturally, when there was chaos in the city, a group of people gathered in Meng Tuo's home, and they all wanted to take shelter with Meng Tuo.
Because he learned that the rebels were Liangzhou soldiers who had just been sent to Weiyang Palace, Meng Tuo wanted to go to the Prime Minister's Mansion to report.
Meng Tuo's ability can only be said to be average, but he is very good at making relationships.
When Zhang let them gain power, Meng Tuo had the means to win over them. When he later dealt with the eunuchs, he was still able to avoid being purged as an eunuch. This shows how powerful this man is.
How did Meng Tuo make connections? That is to never let go of a person worth communicating with.
Even though his relationship with Dong Zhuo was already very good, Meng Tuo still deliberately made friends with people like Li Ru.
Therefore, when Meng Tuo went to the Prime Minister's Mansion, he also planned to take shelter under Li Ru.
But Meng Tuo didn't know that this time he underestimated the scale of the rebellion and the madness of the blood sacrifice in Chang'an City.
Even though many people in the family persuaded Meng Tuo not to go out, Meng Tuo still insisted on going out.
And from the fact that he took his son Meng Da with him when he went out, it was obvious that Meng Tuo still had no confidence in himself. Even though others were taking shelter from him, he was actually weak himself. He believed that the real safety was in the Prime Minister's Mansion.
Although this boy Meng Da is a prince, he is different from those sons of princes and princes. He is quite ambitious and has excellent bow and horse skills.
This time he went to the Prime Minister's Mansion with his father to become a monk. Meng Da himself was very confident, thinking that even if there was an accident, he would be able to protect his father with his martial arts.
So after putting on a pair of iron armor that was secretly hidden at home, Mengda took the lead in leaving the house with a short spear in his left hand and a sword in his right hand, followed by twelve tribesmen guarding him on both sides, and in the middle were six disciples carrying their shoulders. Yu.
Meng Tuo was sitting on the shoulder carriage, his face covered with thick powder, wearing a wide robe and long sleeves, and his eyes were casually squinted, as if this time he was just attending a banquet.
But after just two streets, they met a group of rioters. These people were holding it in their hands and carrying it on their shoulders, and they were very happy.
Suddenly seeing Meng Da's team, these people were stunned for a moment. Seeing that these people also had weapons, they didn't dare to move.
Meng Da had been leading the team from the front. When he saw the people on the other side, he knew that he was also wary of them, so he shouted:
"Good men, we are going to the Prime Minister's Mansion. We don't want to interfere with the river. How about we go to one side of the road?"
There was a leader opposite, carrying a woman on his shoulders. She looked like she was a member of a noble family.
Perhaps knowing that they were going to the Prime Minister's side, these Liangzhou rebels did not dare to cause trouble, so the leader responded simply:
"Well, let's all hold our swords and go to one side of this chaos."
Meng Da nodded, then looked back at his father, and when he saw him nodding, he took the initiative to lead the team to the right side of the road, while the other side also moved to the left side of the road with people in cages.
Both sides put away their weapons, put down their bows and crossbows, and passed each other cautiously.
But an accident happened. The female family member who was being carried by the rebel general suddenly struggled and shouted:
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Meng Da, it's..." Before he could finish his words, people on both sides changed their expressions.
An archer in the opposite corner shot an arrow directly at Meng Da. Others also drew their weapons and rushed towards Meng Da.
The general of the rebellious army simply stabbed the female family member who was in the way to death, and then took out his crossbow and shot an arrow at the crowd.
Here, Meng Da used his left hand to deflect the arrows with his spear, his face gloomy. He heard the woman's voice, she was clearly the bride of his good friend Du Ji.
Seeing his friend's wife dying in front of him, Meng Da rushed over.
With a swing of the spear in his left hand, he swung away the opponent's sword, and then stabbed the opponent with his right knife to death. He followed the same pattern, and three rebel soldiers died under his own sword and spear in two or three blows.
But suddenly, he heard the exclamations from the family behind him, and couldn't help but turn his head and look back, and saw his father covering the arrow on his heart and falling to the ground in pain.
Meng Tuo hit the ground, stirring up dust, and then his body twitched twice more and stopped moving.
Meng Da was stunned for a moment, and before he could react, a knife from the other side struck him in the neck.
If it weren't for the basin collar around his neck, Meng Da's head could be chopped off with that knife.
After all, he had never fought in a life-and-death fight before. Meng Da could still be distracted at this juncture, so he was immediately seized by the waiting rebel generals.
But even with the basin collar blocking it, the blade still scratched Meng Da's neck and brought him back to his senses.
Meng Da subconsciously struck back with his knife, but the opponent was prepared and dodged immediately, and then gave Meng Da another blow.
At this time, Mengda knew that the team he met would be a good player, and he did not dare to be distracted anymore.
After that, the two sides exchanged swords several times. Meng Da came from a famous swordsman, so he has superb skills, but the Liangzhou team will have sword skills practiced among the dead, and the swords are cruel and deadly.
Moreover, some of the moves were clearly killing moves. Meng Da had never seen them before. If he had this armor, he would have died three or four times.
Meng Da no longer dared to have any hatred in his heart, and tried hard to think of the other party's flaws.
At this time, there was a burst of hurried footsteps from behind, and there were constant shouts:
"Kill the thief, kill the thief!"
The opposite team was facing us, so we had a field of vision. When we saw the approaching team, we jumped back to the team like a monkey.
Then, before Meng Da could react, the rebels from the opposite side left, leaving behind five or six bodies of noble ladies.
At this time, the team from behind rushed over.
It turned out that these people were the children of the aristocratic families who had taken shelter in the Meng family. When they saw that some members of the Meng family were rushing back to report the news, they knew the priorities and hurriedly rushed out with dozens of people from various organizations.
At this moment, seeing that the rebels had been scared off, several children from aristocratic families were quite happy. When they were about to cheer, they suddenly saw Meng Tuo lying on the ground.
At this moment, everyone was stunned.
Meng Da's hormones were gone now, his whole body was bent up, and then he started breathing heavily.
After a long time to calm down, Mengda ignored the looks of several people and knelt beside his father, looking sad.
Everyone was a little sad, and what was even more desperate than sad was that even Meng Tuo, whom they had always known, died at the hands of the rebels. What else could they hope for?
It seems that we are really going to Changle Palace.
Now everyone is rushing to where they are. With strong walls, manpower and the backbone of the Empress Dowager Dong, they may be able to survive this chaos.
Meng Da, who was kneeling, also understood this truth. There was Bu Bu beside him to comfort him, saying that the family still relied on him to make decisions.
After Mengda wiped away his tears, he placed his father's body on his shoulder and prepared to go home and pack his things to evacuate to Changle Palace.
Suddenly, Mengda thought again, turned around, walked to the bride of his friend, cut a section of her hair with a knife, then sighed and left.
After that, the team hurried back, leaving only extremely desolate streets.
At this point, the sons of the ministers in the city all understood that this war was finally related to them.
……
Autumn colors and sunset are inherently beautiful pictures.
However, the Changle Palace was filled with swords and soldiers. At the last moment when the sun set, the kings guarding the palace lowered the stone locks and completely sealed the palace gate.
Not everyone can run into Changle Palace decisively. There are still a large number of people stranded in the Gongqing residence area to the north of the palace.
Dark night is coming, and those people can only hope for happiness.
Lieutenant Wei Qing, who was guarding the palace gate, closed his eyes in pain when he saw the wailing coming from the night in the north.
As Zhijinwu, Wei Qing's main responsibility should have been to command the northern troops in the Beigong.
But since Dong Zhuo unified Chang'an's soldiers and horses into the Flying Bear Army, the responsibilities of military attachés like Wei Qing have all changed.
In the end, the guards led the Yulin Army to guard Weiyang Palace, and Lieutenant Zhijinwu led Zhijinwu to guard Changle Palace.
When the chaos began, Wei Qing continued to accept the officials near the palace to take refuge. He himself also took all his children and family members into the palace.
But the situation soon changed too quickly. I heard that the rebels had begun to attack the Weiyang Palace next door. From the west of the palace, Zhi Jinwu saw that there were rebels coming from outside the city everywhere down the corridor.
At this time, Wei Qing no longer dared to pick up people. He locked the gates after falling rocks and only used bamboo baskets to pick up the refugees who ran under the palace wall. He could not do anything else.
As night fell, Wei Qing was about to go down the wall to report the situation to the Queen Mother, but suddenly more and more firelight gathered from the north and was heading here.
Could it be that the rebels wanted to attack Changle Palace overnight? Are these people so crazy?
……
It was not Changle Palace that was attacked overnight, but the Weiyang Palace next to it.
Because the previous time limit had expired, Dong Huang began to order his troops to besiege. Liangzhou soldiers shouted loudly all around, intending to kill everyone in the palace.
From sunset to dark, every gate was lit with fires, and they attacked fiercely, making a sound that shook the heaven and earth.
Just now, good news came from the East Palace, saying that the sons and daughters had been trapped in the East Gate Palace.
At this time, Dong Huang, who was sitting in the back drinking and eating meat, was overjoyed. He climbed on his horse drunkenly, then picked up a piece of mutton leg from the fire rack and went straight to the front line.
He will personally give meat to the soldiers who have done meritorious service.
Dong Huang just wants everyone to know that as long as you perform meritorious service, you can eat meat here!